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Furude Rika
Character Summary Furude Rika is the daughter of the shinto priest in Hinamizawa. She is the miko, or shrine maiden of the shrine after her parents died, appearing in miko garb for her part of the Watanagashi ceremony. She appears as the main character beginning in Minagoroshi-hen. Rika seems like little more than a secondary character for much of the first season of Higurashi. As the story progresses though, viewers learn that she is actually at the very heart of most of the strange happenings in the series. The villagers of Hinamizawa hold her in high esteem. Not only is she the only daughter of Furude clan, one of the three great houses of Hinamizawa; she is also believed to be the reincarnation of the local deity Oyashiro-sama. Despite only being killed five times on-screen, dialogue eventually confirms that she has been killed a far greater number. Personality and Mannerisms Rika often seems wise beyond her years. During Himatsubushi-hen ( which is set in the past of 1978), as a very young child, she predicted her own death for June of 1983 to the visiting Mamoru Akasaka. Although she is entitled to attend and have a voice in village meetings due to her family status, she is not required to attend because of her young age. She has a tendency to speak using 'cute' phrases; including sound effects and nonsense words such as "nipaa", "mii", cat sounds and saying "pachi pachi" (clap clap) while clapping her hands, all of which drives the cute-loving Rena wild. To add to her 'cute' and feminine manner, Rika refers to herself with the word "boku", which although is generally used by boys, it is considered extremely cute when used by young Japanese girls. She lives with her classmate and friend Satoko in a small house, and is fond of wine and kimchi. She is the only person able to see Hanyū for most of the series, as Hanyū doesn't appear to the viewer until Minagoroshi-hen and Matsuribayashi-hen. True Personality Rika's cuteness disappears and she turns cynical and much more mature. She switches from "boku" to "watashi" and her voice drops to something more resembling a grown woman's voice than a child's. This is the voice and outlook on life Rika uses when thinking and when speaking to Hanyū, so it is likely this is her real personality, which she keeps under wraps to avoid scaring her friends. Rika's second character song (S A G A : Rinne No Hate Ni~) is sung almost entirely with her True Personality, and it is notable Frederica Bernkastel sounds and acts almost exactly like this. It is also interesting that Furude Rika's name sounds a lot like Frederica. The first time we know of her True Personality is in Himatsubushi-hen, when she warns Akasaka to go back with his wife to save her from dying. After that she fainted. It appears that over the hundreds of repetitions she has been through, Rika's True Personality has become understandably somewhat distorted and sly, as she seems to an extent to derive pleasure from taunting people with knowledge that she shouldn't know, such as Akasaka. Apparently Rika used to resist her fate with much greater enthusiasm, but she was worn down mentally over time, and eventually seems resigned to her fate. Due to this, she also seems to have practically no interest in anything, as she has been through it all many times already (save for Mion's whimsical club activities, which seem to be one of her few pleasures in life), and she welcomes any kind of change, good and bad. TIPS reveal that when her family was still around, she would show no emotions, and only react to something unexpected. This caused great concern for her mother, who couldn't understand Rika no matter how hard she tried, and made their relationship difficult. Her True Personality is also considerably bold and sometimes rude to people. Appearance Rika has long blue hair in a hime cut, fitting her image as a miko. Her eyes are fairly droopy and purple, and she is the shortest character of all. On school days,Rika wears a white short sleeved shirt with a pink bow, a navy-blue skirt, navy suspenders, white socks and red or brown shoes. On free days, she wears a green sundress, with a white bow in the front and white sandals. During the Watanagashi Festival, she wears a traditional miko uniform, complete with a ornate hoe topped with tassels. Relationships Hōjō Satoko Satoko is Rika's closest friend as they have been living together since the deaths of both of their parents. Satoko is usuall y the only one that can tell when Rika is upset, as well as the only one that isn't fooled by her cute phrases that she often uses to hide her true feelings. Like all of her friends, Rika tries to protect Satoko because she knows how much pain she has been through. She's the only one besides Dr. Irie and Takano Miyo that knows Satoko needs regular shots so that she won't succumb to the Hinamizawa Syndrome; everyone else (including Satoko) thinking that she is taking experimental medicine. Rika frequently protects Satoko, as many villagers shun her for her parents support of the dam project, while at the same time praising Rika at every opportunity. Maebara Keiichi While their relationship is left vague due to the 'eccentricity' of her situation, she does respect him and the two are very close friends. Rika considers him to be her only hope in escaping her fate, and is often genuinely suprised by his actions. This may be one of the reasons that Rika seems to care for Keiichi, and she often tries to protect him. Ryūgū Rena Rena and Rika are close friends since the start of the series; Rena often finding Rika cute and wanting to "take her home." Rika likes Rena's friendly and innocent personality and tries to protect her from relapsing into symptoms of the Hinamizawa syndrome. Minagoroshi-hen / Matsuribayashi-hen As a daughter of the Furude clan Rika was thought to be a "Queen Carrier". Early theories on the Hinamizawa syndrome hold that the Queen Carrier is necessary part of the village's survival, and that without her the villagers would go mad in 48 hours. This theory is later proven to be untrue in ''Meakashi-hen'', in which when Shion kills Rika, the villagers do not react and life for them goes on normally, even throughout the middle of the Heisei Era and past year 2000, as shown by Meakashi-hen's endgame TIPS. However, some of the deference shown to Rika by the villagers may be an unconscious acknowledgement of her role as Queen Carrier. How exactly the status of Queen Carrier is handed down is unclear; although the research done on the Syndrome shows that it is passed down in the females of the Furude clan there is evidence of who the carrier was prior to Rika. It is because of this inheritance, however, that Takano Miyo pursues her as a research subject. Her parents refuse to allow Rika to be used in this manner and in order to get her way Takano is more than willing to get rid of them. In order to prove grandfather's theories to satisfy her funders, Takano decides that, after years of observing, she needs to kill the Queen Carrier as well. Rika's death is the pivot point for each of the scenarios of Higurashi; on her death Takano will be able to wipe out the entire village with the forces at her disposal in order to 'prevent' the 'doomsday scenario' her grandfather predicted for the village. Hanyū's powers allow her to 'reset' time after Rika's initial murder, and all subsequent deaths as well, leaving only the two of them with any clear memory of the events. Together they set out to solve the mystery behind Rika's death and prevent the disaster that follows, but each time Hanyū uses her ability the time they have grows shorter. After what Rika estimates to have been over 100 years of repeating the various scenarios over and over she begins to doubt that they'll ever solve it, despairing and nearly giving up until she realizes that some of her friends seem to remember bits and pieces of the various scenarios they've run into before. With the help of her friends she is able to deceive Takano and the groups backing her into believing that Rika has already died, and that the hypothetical 48 hours have passed with no apparent ill effect, saving both her own life and the village. Live Action Aika plays as Furude Rika in the Higurashi no Naku Koro ni live-action movie series. Trivia *Out of all the characters, Rika has died the most number of times. *She is the only one (of all her friends) in all the arcs (including spin-offs) to have never been a sole survivor. *Rika hasn't survived in any arc other then Matsuribayashi-hen. *In Minagoroshi-hen, Rika was the last out of her friends to survive until the end, since Takano immediately shot the club members down one by one, before killing Rika at the shrine altar. It's interesting to note that, unlike the previous arcs (possibly excluding Onikakushi-hen), she's not one of the first to die in this arc. Images Untitled.jpg|Rika as she appears in the sound novels M rika.jpg|Aika as Rika Rika Miko.jpg|Rika's miko outfit 30311.jpg|Rika higurashi-sotoko-rika.jpg|Rika and Satoko Category:Characters Category:Main Characters Category:The Club